Saratoga Springs Comprehensive Plan review hits snag; vote tabled

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The city's review of its Comprehensive Plan has hit a snag after the mayor and the city's three Democratic council members accused one another of playing politics and tabled a vote on hiring a consulting firm to assist in the process.

The debate at Tuesday night's City Council meeting erupted after the three council members questioned whose responsibility it is to appoint a 13- to 15-member committee of local community leaders that will work with the hired consultants to review the city's Comprehensive Plan.

"I am not getting into that tonight," said Mayor Scott Johnson, a Republican, when Democratic commissioners Michele Madigan, John Franck and Christian Mathiesen questioned the mayor's authority to appoint the entire committee.

Johnson said appointing the board was separate from the issue of hiring a consultant, arguing that however the committee is formed, it will require the expert guidance of the consultant.

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All three Democrats said they were uncomfortable hiring a consultant when the committee had not yet been formed.

"That's a really important part of this picture," Mathiesen said.

Franck, meanwhile, said approving the consultant Tuesday may have meant cutting the council out of the process.

"If we go ahead and approve this bid tonight and you appoint a committee tomorrow, we can't do a thing," he said. "I think the assumption across the board was that we were going to be able to pick some (members of the committee)."

Johnson, on the other hand, accused the council members of using Tuesday's vote as "leverage to getting an appointment on this board."

"It is bad process -- inappropriate -- and I think it's almost bordering on blackmail," Johnson said to the vocal objections of the Democrats at the table.

"I think you got this backwards," Franck retorted.

Madigan first questioned the appointment of the committee during Monday's pre-agenda meeting. At that point, Johnson said the committee had "already been constituted," but that he was open to discussing it.

"This is the first anyone from this council voiced any objection to my appointing this committee," Johnson said during Tuesday's council meeting, adding it was no secret he has been forming the committee. He referenced articles in The Saratogian that ran in late November and early December in which he stated he hoped to have the committee formed by the end of 2012.

Still, both Mathiesen and Madigan said they were unaware he was appointing the committee.

In early January, Johnson said, "It seemed appropriate" instead to announce the members of the committee during his annual State of the City address. However, during Tuesday's council meeting, Johnson said it was "undetermined" when the committee would be announced.

On Wednesday, Johnson called the recent opposition to his naming the committee a "wrinkle, but not insurmountable."

"I will be addressing this during the State of the City tomorrow evening," he said, though he declined to give details ahead of the speech, which is set for 7 tonight in the City Center.

Madigan said there is precedent for city commissioners being able to appoint members to previous Comprehensive Planning committees, listing all of the committees formed in the past 20 years.

Johnson disagreed, saying there is "no evidence" that this committee was ever appointed by anyone but the mayor.

Franck, though, said he made an appointment to the Comprehensive Plan Committee in 2006 under Mayor Valerie Keehn, and Mathiesen said he knew of one appointment from Public Works Commissioner Bill McTygue in 1999.

Madigan and Mathiesen cited the New York State Department of State Guide to Planning and Zoning Laws, which indicates that "the legislative body of the city" is responsible for appointing a committee to review the plan.

The Comprehensive Plan is a document that seeks to give the city a blueprint for its future development and unifies the policies for guiding development in the city. The City Charter requires that it be revisited every five years. The last plan was adopted by the City Council in 2001.

It is not specified in the charter who is responsible for forming the committee. One section indicates that the Planning Board, "at direction of the City Council," would prepare the Comprehensive Plan. Another section states that "The mayor shall cause a review of the city's Comprehensive Plan," but nowhere does it specify who appoints a review committee.

No resolution was reached Tuesday night.

In addition to the debate about the committee appointments, Mathiesen also questioned the $65,000 cost of the consulting firm, given the fact that previous reviews of the Comprehensive Plan have been much less expensive.

A call last year for bids for the consulting job resulted in the Planning Department choosing local firm M&J Engineering and Survey at a cost of $65,000.

City Planner Bradley Birge said a consultant was hired for a comprehensive plan review about a decade ago for $20,000.